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Definition
exceedingly cowardly; or someone who is exceedingly cowardly- the craven fellow turned and ran
craven = exceedingly cowardly
- a craven proposal to raise the white flag
- A horrible quaking, craven fear possessed her soul.Zane Grey -- Riders of the Purple Sage
- Must I slink like a craven because I've lost the love of one man?Zane Grey -- The Call of the Canyon
- They lodged, I find, at the Mexborough Private Hotel, in Craven Street, which was actually one of those called upon by my agent in search of evidence.Arthur Conan Doyle -- The Hound of the Baskervilles
- I saw on that ivory face the expression of somber pride, of ruthless power, of craven terror—of an intense and hopeless despair.Joseph Conrad -- Heart of Darkness
- I nod, feeling craven for the lie.Libba Bray -- A Great and Terrible Beauty
- He smiled back at her with the sudden, craven weakness of the utterly spiritless creature which these crushing words had made of him.Marcel Proust -- Swann's Way
- The vigilantes were bolstering up the craven Frenchy.Zane Grey -- The Border Legion
- There was nothing I could do for Faith, or for Aphra, so I gave way to my craven impulse and fled from that place as fast as my legs would propel me.Geraldine Brooks -- Year of Wonders
- It was class hate first, then the hate of real manhood for a craven, then the hate of disgrace for a murder.Zane Grey -- The Man of the Forest
- Oliver needed no prompting to despatch, and in little more than five minutes they were on their way to Craven Street.Charles Dickens -- Oliver Twist
- She resorts to craven, apologetic giggling, which annoys them further, and me also.Margaret Atwood -- Cat's Eye
- And they fretted because they could do nothing for him in return; they felt so craven sitting on softness and attending the course of the law.E.M. Forster -- A Passage to India
- In the meantime Thomas Mugridge, like a drowned rat, was being dragged out from under the forecastle head where he had cravenly ensconced himself.Jack London -- Sea Wolf
- They do not themselves clearly know their proper place, and they are almost always either insolent or craven.Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 2
- I did an inexplicable and, I'm afraid, craven thing then.William Styron -- Sophie's Choice
- Part of him, a craven, cowardly part which would rather risk losing Misery forever than look upon the inevitable results of such a mistake, denied it.Stephen King -- Misery
- What has come over you, to make you think the Akhaians weak and craven as you say?Homer -- The Iliad
- Mitty looked at him and at the craven figure of Benbow, who drank, and at the grave, uncertain faces of the two great specialists.James Thurber -- The Secret Life of Walter Mitty